Louvain Coopération wants to ensure that expectant mothers have access to quality healthcare, whatever their income. To this end, with our local partners, we are developing mutual health insurance schemes that include cover for specific services for women in Benin, Togo and Burundi. These structures have recently been extended to cover STDs and breast and cervical cancer. Focus on the initial results of these new projects.

The mutual health organisations we support enable expectant mothers to have their pregnancies properly monitored, and to give birth surrounded by qualified medical teams, even if they have very limited resources. What's more, these facilities are powerful awareness-raising tools because they reach a wide population.

In recent months, we have launched new projects to combat gender-specific diseases that affect women. Thanks to the mutuals, women are informed about sexual and reproductive health, in order to fight STDs and early pregnancies, which are one of the main causes of death among teenage girls in most developing countries. The mutuals also organise mass screening campaigns forbreast and cervical cancers.

Initial results

The screening campaigns began a few months ago. In Burundi, 397 women were able to be made aware of breast and uterine cancers and 141 were screened. 11 patients had precancerous lesions and were treated with cryotherapy or thermo-coagulation. One patient had more advanced lesions and was treated surgically at Ngozi Hospital.

In Benin, information and screening campaigns are being set up. But many mothers-to-be are already being taken care of by the mutual health insurance schemes we support.318 have already benefited from low-cost antenatal consultations, and 82 have been able to give birth surrounded by a well-trained medical team.

We want to do even more for these women, these mums, but we need you to make it happen.

Get involved  for the health of women and mothers, alongside Louvain Coopération.